Posted on 09/13/2024 8:53:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Would you be impressed by a car that gets 93 mpg? If the answer is yes, then you’re going to be impressed by the current Toyota Prius. While the current Prius may be EPA-rated for a “lowly” 57 mpg, it just completed a cross-country drive, from Los Angeles’ City Hall to New York’s City Hall, while averaging 93.1 MPG. That’s a 3,200-mile trip, so unlike a lot of fuel efficiency tests that take place over a few dozen or a few hundred miles, this one took place between two of America’s biggest cites, one on each coast . And yes, that’s a new fuel-efficiency world record, certified by Guinness.
How does a Toyota Prius nearly double its certified fuel efficiency? The single biggest factor is how it’s driven, or in this case, who is doing the driving. This hyper-efficient Prius owes its record-setting run to a gentleman named Wayne Gerdes, who publishes a website called CleanMPG.com and has a long history of setting efficiency records.
The last time Wayne drove across the country, in a Kia Niro hybrid in 2016, he achieved a then-record 76.6 MPG. Wayne has also set records for driving a Volkswagen Passat TDI through all 48 contiguous states while averaging 68 MPG.
So Wayne Gerdes likes to break automotive efficiency records. And this time he chose the current Toyota Prius, which has already won a long list of accolades, including my personal assessment as the best car you can buy today, at least if you’re looking for the best combination of value, reliability, performance, safety, styling, and yes, fuel efficiency. It didn’t surprise me to see Wayne pair up with the current Prius to break another record. Still, getting an average of 93 mpg out of the car while crossing the U.S. is truly impressive.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
2021 Dodge Ram EcoDiesel, Denver to Panama City, Florida, multiple trips, 27.5 MPG.
2021 Jeep Wrangler Sahara EcoDiesel, Key Largo to Key West and back, 35.5 MPG.
I am a huge fan of making diesels for many reasons.
Thanks.
How many months did this jaunt take him?
I rented a Toyota hybrid Sienna minivan on vacation last year. Plenty of power and averaged 36MPG.
“How big is the tank?”
.
Which one? The tank for the car or the tank for the generator?
When I owned a vw golf diesel with a possible 50 mpg the car actually told the driver how to press the pedal and when to not. With a screen on the dash.
So you had an uneven ride with a lot of coasting.
I averaged around 39 to 42. And always parked in the GREEN car spots.
My 1993 Honda XR250L dual sport motorcycle doesn’t get that much per gallon and it only weighs 440# with me on it. However, I’d never buy an hybrid or all-electric car because I don’t want to have anything to do with that action...”Look at me, I’m saving the planet!”
If I am riding really nice my 250 KLX-R well get into the high 70’s.
If I am out having fun 60 to 65.
Stick a diesel in the Prius and you’ll be talking over 120 MPG. Sad that the Leftists never permitted that.
One thing they don’t mention:
While maintaining the highest gear ratio and the lowest rpms is optimal for fuel efficiency, it is not optimal for the long term health of the engine parts - which are being starved of power by the low fuel consumption and therefore working harder and under more load and stress.
Maximizing your fuel efficiency by staying in the highest gear and lowest rpms is like a bicyclist refusing to downshift and accelerate his pedaling when encountering a hill. There will be a loss of power and increased leverage on the gears - maybe even snap the chain.
The 2023 Prius I had on a 6 month lease would return 80+mpg in grid lock traffic over 16 mile distances. I saw as high as 90mpg on a 9 mile trip in bumper to bumper grid lock in Houston, and in the 80s in New Orleans and DFW over 10 to 20 mile trips. Even at 85mph on the motorway continuous it would return 56 or so. Impressive car, I routinely used it as a mobile worksite “idling” for hours with the AC ripping. I italicized idling because it doesn’t actually idle it runs the AC and inverters off the battery pack till it hits 30% discharge or what you set it at in the advanced settings then the engine comes on not at idle but at 3000 ish rpm and charges the pack back to 100% or 80% again it’s a settong. For max life 90/30 is the sweet spot. Even parked for hours it was only using 0.5 gph to run two laptops a 27” LCD and the AC set to 70 in South or East Texas heat. My normal ICE car of similar size would use 1.6 gph at idle with the AC on and similar computer loads. Toyota has mastered the hybrid it is seamless to the driver you stomp on the pedal and it just accelerates away smoothly. Because the AC unit is driven by high voltage DC and not the motor it doesn’t kick off and on like an ICE car with stop start at stop lights or bumper to bumper grid lock conditions.
I want a Toyota Camry plug in when they have one with the California compliant 100 mile plug in range that will be the peak of the hybrid system. BYD already has a Camry sized plug in with well over a 100 mile plug in range and 1300+ miles on the fuel tank for a combined world record 1400+ mile total range it also gets 108 mpg in city traffic under real world driving. A reporter and test driver took one out in a major Chinese city and did a 100+ km test drive in normal afternoon driving conditions it returned the US gallon equivalent of 108 mpg over that long of a test drive impressive to say the least. Why? Because the Chinese have put the most efficient ICE ever produced into that BYD it has direct injection, super high compression, fully variable valve so it is throttleless, and also has a Miller cycle so its expansion stoke is much longer than its compression stroke only made possible by full VVT. It’s 48% eff to the electric motors and a world record there too.
Sadly the USA will never see that BYD due to trade tariffs. Mexico is getting BYD I’m tempted to go to Mexico and US one of my LLC to buy one and then plate it in Mexico and drive it across the border Texas has to honor Mexican plates on a corporate vehicle due to nafta.
“A real test is average driving conditions of stop and go and some interstate travel and country roads. On this test the Prius is far less but it is still outstanding in its gas mileage. It is a good car.”
I had a 2023 for 6 months in 2023. Real world Houston traffic 90mpg over a 9 mile trip from downtown to the energy corridor in Katy. 82 mpg on the return trip at higher speeds later that night vs morning gridlock. New Orleans afternoon French Quarter and Midtown traffic 10 mile round trip 80mpg. Shortest trip 3 mile at walking speeds in grid lock 89mpg. DFW 16 mile trip down 635 and the DNT in rush hour 80 mpg. DFW to Shreveport 85 mph from East Dallas all the way to the exit 19 on Shreveport 220 miles 56mpg cumulative for that trip. Not hypermilling at all just normal let the cars radar tech speed up ,slow down, come to a halt ,hold the brakes ,tap the resume button and let it do its thing again. The 2023 has basically hands and foot free follow mode if you trick the hands on sensor it will hold the lane center and stay 10 to 50 feet behind vehicle in front you set that distance. The adaptive cruise to halt and brake hold plus resume is golden in gridlock all you have to do is tap the resume on the wheel or tap the right pedal and it just wooshes off after the car ahead or if you are the lead car it wooshes up to what ever speed you set the control too. Not like Tesla FSD but good enough for grid lock or motorway driving if you don’t change lanes. Get a steering wheel weight it tricks the sensor into thinking your hand is on it and the car will.faithfully stay in the lane center at motorway speeds tracking curves too it shows you on the display it’s locked onto the stripes and buzzes if it loses both stripes.
“While maintaining the highest gear ratio and the lowest rpms is optimal for fuel efficiency, it is not optimal for the long term health of the engine parts - which are being starved of power by the low fuel consumption and therefore working harder and under more load and stress.”
That’s irrelevant in a Prius that don’t have gears that the operator can control even if they wanted too. The Toyota system is two electric motors connected by a single speed epicyclic gesr.The input is on the planets with the engine driving the planets, the output is the sun where the second motor is also hard attached too. The first motor which is normally a generator is on the ring all three rotate relative to each other there is never any shifting more can they be disconnected in the basics hybrid form. All three rotate in a mathematical dance controlled by very fast and sophisticated computers and sensors. So how does the Prius sit still with its engine on if it has to spin all three? Clever math...at stop when the sun is stationary and the engine driving the planets forward the sum maths ratio is negative for the ring and it spins...backwards the motor 1 / generator doesn’t care its direction of rotation so the car sits stationary with the ICE on. To pull away M2 starts to out torque in the forward direction which also loads the ICE and causes M1 to slow down eventually stop and reverse direction as speed increases that cross over point is 35 mph at which the ICE has to run to keep M1 from spinning too fast. Normally a Prius launches with the ICE off and stationary with M1 and M2 both running forwards somewhere before 35 mph M1 slows down and that loads up the ICE planets in the forward direction spinning it up and starting it then all three dance at their commanded speeds. So no the user can never hold a higher gear in a Prius it doesn’t have gears in that way.
The plug in Prius has a one way dog clutch on M/G 1 so it can disconnect and allow the ring to spin freely which keeps the ICE stopped and let’s M2 drive the car up yo 80 mph using electric alone. The ICE has a dedicated starter to bring it up to speed so the ring gear is then moving forward and when M/G 1 spins up yo matching speed the dog clutch engages and M this time working as G1 plus the ICE joins the party at any speed above 35 mph.
Honda has a better plug in system it’s simply two electric drive units one drives the wheels the other is a generator attached to the ICE normally the two never touch the electric motor drives the wheels and the engine drives the generator its all electric no gears at all. This way no complicated epicyclic gear unit nor the high speed controls for it. You get plug in mode natively but trade some fuel economy by going ICE to electric to electric at high speeds. At low speeds it’s always more effective to go electric to electric hence is why hybrids get double the mpg at city and traffic speeds. Honda said ok at motorway speeds we will just link the two electric units together via a simple one way clutch and drive the final drive ratio directly via the ICE. You get all the benefits of a serial hybrid in grid lock and keep the economy at motorway speeds by not using the electrics for anything but regen braking, and peak torque for passing and acceleration. Elegant and simple is the Honda way. It means you have to have a huge motor 2 capable of driving the whole mass of the vehicle at any speeds unlike the Toyota system where M1 and M2 plus the ICE can all three drive the car at any time.
Towing distance doesn’t count as “mileage”.
Automotive tech has changed a lot in 25 years, but our Sienna minivan back then was awful. It had engine design problems that led to huge sludge build up and gulping oil. The blue clouds of smoke were embarrassing. We measured oil consumption in quarts per mile.
Your head will explode with AI tech now for nearly every car made. It’s not FSD but it’s close. Most supported cars become full hands free on the motorway and also in gridlock. Adaptive cruise to halt ,brake hold and automatic resume takes 90% of the work out of gridlock and city traffic set the speed max to 5 over the limit and just let it do its thing. Same for long distance on interstates just set it 5 to 10 over and let it rip. It’s open source so you can edit out the driver monitoring if you know how to code or just wear sunglasses day time and polycarbonate yellow lenses at night it can’t see your eyes you can then watch Netflix o? the tablet the whole time. FSD is $5000 Thoreau is cheap by comparison.
https://www.comma.ai/openpilot
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